Did you know that one of the
most important and complicated decisions you can make in marine electronics is
choosing the correct battery charging system for your boat? Charging your marine batteries is a simple
process of driving electrical currents into your battery in the reverse
direction as the discharge occurred. Although recharging batteries can be a
simple process, many things do factor into your decision and play a roll in
choosing the proper charger.
The goal of our experts is to
help you make an informed decision when you replace or add an on-board charging
system to your vessel. You are adding value to your boat by having an on-board
battery charger. In addition, these chargers also offer you the convenience and
the ability to charge multiple batteries at the same time. You no longer will
need to drag out a portable battery charger every time your batteries need
charging. Maintaining your batteries
will be as easy as plugging in your boat to any 110 volt outlet.
The first step in the process
is to identify what type of batteries you have on board your watercraft. You will need to look for some specifics
about the batteries you are wishing to incorporate into the charging system.
You will need to determine the following:
Voltage
Battery type
Amp-hour capacity
Typically, in the marine
world, you will be dealing with 12-volt systems. The batteries capacity is
usually listed on the battery as ah or amp hour. Marine batteries will be one of the following
types:
Flooded/wet cell
lead acid
Starved
electrolyte AMG
Maintenance free
Once you know a little about
the batteries you are wishing to charge, it is time to pick a charger. I know
from my years of experience tournament bass fishing, picking a charger is not
where you want to cut dollars. Starting and trolling system batteries are very
expensive. A good quality battery charger, backed by a top manufacturer, will
prolong the life of these batteries and ultimately save you money.
Chargers typically come in
single, double, triple and quadruple bank systems and should have independent
outputs to charge each battery separately. The battery industry recommends
charging your battery at approximately 15-20 percent of its capacity. For
example, a 100-amp hour battery would be best charged at 15-20 amps. For your safety, be sure the battery charger
you buy is UL listed to Marine 1236 standards and FCC compliant. If you choose a charger that is too large or
small for your batteries it could damage them and decrease the life by
overheating, gassing and causing excessive water loss.
Depending on what type of
boating you enjoy, you will need to make sure your on-board chargers
waterproof housing is designed for fresh and/or salt water. It is also
important that you make sure it is vibration resistant and incorporates built-in
reverse polarity protection. To prevent boil over or your battery over-heating,
be sure the charger you purchase has an automatic temperature compensation,
this feature adjust output depending on the temperature to assure a fast full
charge in any weather conditions. We suggest getting a charger that will charge
in three stages typically these stages are:
Bulk or quick
charge mode - gets your batteries
charged quickly
Absorption stage - brings your batteries to a full charge
Maintenance or
trickle charge - keeps your batteries charged
and protects batteries
I personally like units that
offer on-board diagnostics and LED indicator lights to let you know the state
of charge or condition of your batteries.
Once you have purchased your
new on-board charger make sure it is securely mounted in your boat using
stainless steel fasteners. We recommend
you clean your terminals, use dialectic grease and make sure all connections
are tight. Following these steps will insure years of trouble free
operations. We take convenience a step
further on our tournament boats, we install a receptacle plug. You are then
able to plug your extension cord directly into the boat without even unlocking
or opening a compartment.
Before operating your
charger, be sure your batteries are not run down too far. In some cases, your
charger may show you have a bad connection, even though you are confident they
are properly installed, if this is the case it may be necessary to apply jumper
cables from another battery to the one showing connection issues, this will
allow your portable charger to recognize your batteries. Our professionals have
informed us that this condition occurs often during very windy days, usually
when they are operating the trolling motor for extended time on a high-power
setting. On these days, batteries
typically are completely depleted by the end of the day. When they plug in the
charger it will indicate a bad connection. Simply using a set of short jumper
cables to connect the starting battery to the trolling battery for about 3-4
minutes the battery will be picked up by the charger and the bad connection
light goes out. They repeat this process
until all the trolling batteries are recognized by the charger.
